Square Enix Mobile Developer Teases New Mana and Saga Titles

Coinciding with the 25th anniversary of the SaGa series, a Square Enix mobile developer hinted at the possibility of new entries in both the SaGa and Mana franchises.

In a recent article in Famitsu (translated by Siliconera) we learned Square Enix recently celebrated the 25th anniversary of the SaGa series with a ceremony where porcelain plates were being drawn on by Tomomi Kobyashi, the original artist behind most of the SaGa series (drawing on porcelain plates is a 400 year old style of art in Kyushu, Japan). Now that this ceremony has just ended, Takehiro Ando, a mobile developer for Square Enix, hinted that there could be new entries for both the SaGa and Mana series.

Speaking with Eiji Takahashi, producer of the hit mobile title Brave Frontier, Ando revealed some of the future plans for Square Enix's mobile division. Ando explained that his team of mobile development at Square Enix will be helping with the SaGa and Mana series.

“We will be doing our best to stay true to all your memories from the Super Famicom and PlayStation era, for those of you who are saying ‘I want to play Romancing SaGa 4’ or ‘I want to play Seiken Densetsu 5!’ but that’s all I can say for now," Ando told Takahashi.

The Seiken Densetsu series is best known as the Mana series outside of Japan.

Ando also explained, “With that said, we’d like to support the teams so we can release something just as beautiful as what you guys remember from the memories of your experiences in the Super Famicom and PlayStation days. In the case of SaGa, it’ll be later this year, and Manawill also be celebrating its 25th anniversary since the birth of the series, so we’d like to work hard towards them.”

Unfortunately, Ando did not explain the extent of what his development team would be contributing towards the next SaGa or Mana titles, nor did he give any clear-cut details about the upcoming titles themselves. Based on Ando's expertise, these could possibly be HD ports, remakes or brand new titles done on the mobile format. Hopefully, the next Mana and Saga games will be actual console releases and that his mobile team are just helping out in development. We'd hate to see such cornerstone RPG franchises be quarantined to mobile platforms. At the very least, we would hope for some type of PS Vita or Nintendo 3DS entries for both franchises. With Square's recent realization about focusing on more traditional JRPGs, anything is possible.